Posted: Tue 10 Nov 2009 21:49 Post subject: Michelle Obama's cousin?
Quote:
Michelle Obama's cousin?
By JENNIFER FERMINO
Last Updated: 10:51 AM, November 10, 2009
Posted: 12:39 AM, November 10, 2009
They don't look alike -- but a blue-eyed Alabama white woman insists that she is Michelle Obama's long, lost relative.
In an interview that aired last night on "Inside Edition," Debbie Shields, 49, told the TV tabloid show that she believes the First Lady is a descendant of her slave-owning great-great-grandfather.
"I think it is incredible. The history of it. To go from slavery to the White House in a few generations," said Shields' son, Brandon, who considers himself to be Obama's fourth cousin.
The news comes a month after reports that Mrs. Obama's great-great-great-grandmother -- a former slave who lived through the Civil War named Melvinia Shields -- gave birth to three biracial children, according to census records from 1870.
One of those children, Dolphus Shields, was Michelle Obama's great-great-grandfather.
While the Shields family was researching their own bloodlines, they discovered that their relative, Georgia farmer Charles Marion Shields, was the owner of Melvinia Shields.
Debbie Shields is convinced that her relative was the father of Melvinia's children. It was common for slave owners to father children with their slaves.
She admits to being filled with "pride" upon learning that she had a connection to the First Family -- and a little stunned.
"I thought it was a joke," she told "Inside Edition."
Interesting. I've read so many stories like this recently that it's not very surprising to hear about white people finding distant black relatives. I wouldn't get too excited if I was her though. She doesn't know for sure if her great-great grandfather actually fathered the children.
Personally, I think too much empahsis is placed on this case and others like it.
Too much emphasis is placed on "The Slave History."
One, not everyone Black American had a slave histroy.
This woman is a distant cousin of MO,, she and her son thinks so, but it is because MO is FLoTUSA. I am sure this White lady is not claiming to be distant cousins of all ancestors of Shields. Some might be criminals or poor, White or Black.
Also, is this White lady white? Did her family pass along the way?
Families branch off and some decendants go one way and others go another way.
I know someone who is White-Creole and lives as WA, and there is a current NFL player who is WA, same surname with this Creole family who lives as WA and claims him as distant cousin.They met family,WA, of his through some events.
It is traceable so I have been told. I know if he were Black American with same surname, this White family (Creole) would not claim him.
This story about MO ancestors is true, but too much emphasis is put on it.
The Black media esp. loves to talk up somebody famous who had a W slave master and slave over and over. Not enough emphasis is placed on how MO is where she is IMHO. How ? Why ? I love the story about her family. How she became what she is today is because she had great parents. Good values. Hard working. Married parents. School was important. Morals. God. Everything. MO and her brother have done very well in life, but also they have morals, values.
Interesting. I've read so many stories like this recently that it's not very surprising to hear about white people finding distant black relatives. I wouldn't get too excited if I was her though. She doesn't know for sure if her great-great grandfather actually fathered the children.
I agree with you that it is interesting.
I think it is interesting how descendants spilt over the generations.
ODR ,and a person's self-identification, and how society views that person is interesting. What a person looks like is interesting and how a person identifies is interesting. Ex.and not going back far with ones ancestors is Bliss Broyard. She met her distant couins, 2nd,3rd. Some are BA and look it. Some are BA and goes as Creole. Some look WA and go as BA.
I wonder what what her thoughts were when she met,if she did, some of those people who were far whiter than she is with far stronger European looks and who go as WA. BH is dark, meaning brunette, dark eyes .
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